Cm11 guitar chord
The root left to the bass player. Frees a finger for a tension.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Cm11 — rootless voicings
Cm11 is C, Eb, G, Bb, D and F — Cm9 with the eleventh added on top.
It sounds spacious and slightly unresolved. The eleventh is a whole step above the minor third, so unlike its major counterpart it fits without a fight.
Cm11 notes and formula
| C | Eb | G | Bb | D | F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | ♭7 | 9 | 11 |
Pre-dominant or minor tonic — it hangs rather than moves.
Also written Cmin11, C-11 or C minor 11. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Cm11
Leave the root to the bass player. In a band nobody misses it, and the ear supplies it from the guide tones anyway.
The finger it frees goes to a tension, which is why these sound richer than the shape they came from rather than thinner.
Cm11 has 24 of them, on the top four strings, the middle four strings and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 11th — every inversion the chord has: Eb in the bass, G in the bass, Bb in the bass, D in the bass and F in the bass. The one to learn first is the Eb shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
8 of them sit on the top four strings, so you can run the inversions up one set without changing strings — which is the whole reason to learn them as a family rather than as separate grips.
Start with x-x-10-10-11-11 — no barre. None of the shapes for Cm11 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 6 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x31331 | 1st fret | C, root position | F | barred |
| x33343 | 3rd fret | C, root position | G | barred |
| 868766 | 6th fret | C, root position | Bb | barred |
| 8x886x | 6th fret | C, root position | F | barred |
| 8-8-8-8-8-10 | 8th fret | C, root position | D | barred |
| x-x-10-10-11-11 | 10th fret | C, root position | Eb | all fretted |
| x-15-13-15-13-13 | 13th fret | C, root position | F | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 7 shell, 14 drop 2 and 9 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Cm11, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 13 (A).
How to use Cm11
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Cm11 is Dm7♭5 to G7♭9: the ii and the V of C minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
In which keys. Every note of Cm11 belongs to C minor (the i, the tonic), Eb major (the vi, the submediant), G minor (the iv, the subdominant) and Bb major (the ii, the supertonic).
What to play over Cm11
Every note of Cm11 is in C dorian and C natural minor.
Chords near Cm11
Change one note of Cm11 and you have Cm9 (drop the fourth), CmMaj11 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh) or C11 (drop the minor third).
Cm11 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On Cm11’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Theory Book (Sher Music, 1995). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.